Stay Home, Stay Healthy

Last night at a televised news conference here in Oregon, Governor Brown, Mayor Wheeler, and Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafourey announced that they will be working through the weekend to fine-tune a “shelter in place” order for Monday. Rather than calling the order “Shelter in Place,” which is what schoolchildren are taught to do when there’s an active shooter, Governor Brown will instruct us to “Stay home, Stay healthy.” On

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Monday, non-essential businesses in Oregon that haven’t yet shut will be urged, or perhaps ordered, to do so. After nearly thirty years of refusing to give Todd a haircut at home, I’m going to have to cave. And he’s going to have to live with the results. Giving in to a home haircut is more silly than sacrifice, but still. Life has changed already. 

On yesterday morning’s walk, I passed by a man loading a painter’s ladder into the back of his truck, presumably readying himself for a day’s work. When I was right at the end of his driveway, he coughed a hearty series of coughs. He did not cough into his elbow or into a tissue, and I picked up my pace and wondered whether, on a breezy day, our social distance should be greater than six feet. I also felt the kind of irritation and slight fear rise in my heart that could, after weeks of stress and Stay home, Stay healthy, easily boil over into words of confrontation … or worse. 

Later in the day I looked out my front window and saw three teenagers out for a walk together with bandanas drawn over their mouths, Wild West style. Bandanas and scarves and homemade facemasks got a lot of play online yesterday. We learned that we can sew fabric masks at home and that hospitals are asking folks to do so. Fabric masks can be sterilized in hospital washers and reused. I saw several patterns (including one with fabric ties instead of elastic). I know from social media that many, many friends have set up their sewing machines and dug through their quilting supplies for densely woven cotton. When I folded and put away my kitchen towels this morning, I noticed my fabric napkins there in the bottom of the linen drawer. They’re high quality 100% cotton. I closed the drawer with thoughts of Maria Von Trapp and doing my bit. Not yet, but maybe soon. We can’t make nitrile gloves at home, but yes, there are things we can do to help. 

During this first week of isolation, I’ve been watching our weather forecast. We’ve had beautiful spring days, and early in the week I moved furniture out on the deck to expand the footprint of our home and give us some extra space. I’m watching the forecast because we expect rain, starting Monday. Each morning I check my little weather calendar widget, and each morning I see fewer days of sun standing between now and the coming rain.